North Salem High School freshman wrestler Ian Carlos (left) practices with teammate Adan Ramos (right) on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2015.
North Salem High School freshman wrestler Ian Carlos on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2015.
North Salem High School freshman wrestler Ian Carlos on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2015.
It takes a special wrestler to disprove the theory that a freshman must have an acclimation period when they transition to high school wrestling.
Ian Carlos has.
A freshman at North Salem High School, Carlos is 26-1 this season and ranked No. 3 at 126 pounds by Richard Rockwell going into the Greater Valley Conference district wrestling meet Friday and Saturday at Forest Grove.
“He just grew up really fast,” said senior teammate Adan Ramos. “From one year to another it was just a way different Ian, a lot stronger, a lot harder to wrestle.”
That’s not to say Carlos hasn’t had a learning curve.
There was the time he didn’t make weight for North Salem’s dual meet against Sprague.
“Going from kid’s wrestling to high school wrestling, it’s a big change, a lot more cutting weight,” Carlos said. “I remember not wrestling for one tournament so I could get my grades up. I won’t let that happen again.”
Though Carlos is a phenomenon in the high school wrestling world, he is well known in youth wrestling.
He has been wrestling since he was 3 years old and spent most of his youth wrestling with Salem Elite Wrestling Club.
“He’s physical,” said Sprague freshman Daniel McClung, who is ranked No. 2 at 113. “He just doesn’t give up and he keeps going.”
Raised in a wrestling family, Carlos trained extensively with his father, Ruben Carlos, who now coaches outside of high school for Hot Shots Wrestling.
The foundation Carlos built from all those years wrestling with Salem Elite is paying dividends in high school now that his strength has caught up with his skill.
“It did. It really did,” Carlos said. “They started me off pretty good. My dad gave me that big jump from that level to this level.”
For a guy who won the state championship at 102 pounds when he wrestled in the middle school state tournament last year to be up to the 140 pounds that he weighed Monday – “I’m kind of chubby,” he says – is a significant transformation.
In other words, he doesn’t look like a freshman.
North Salem High School freshman wrestler Ian Carlos on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2015.
“Since we knew he was going to be so competitive coming in, we made sure to get him into a weights class first semester, and he’s been hammering out on the weights,” North Salem coach Andy Pickett said. “I think the resistance training combined with all the cardio stuff has compiled together.
“It was a really cool transformation because even this summer he looked a little chubby, vs. now he looks kind of like a man.”
The one criticism is that he and North Salem didn’t compete in a number of the state’s most highly regarded regular season tournaments such as the Reser’s Tournament of Champions or the Oregon Classic.
That doesn’t dim the expectations of him at the GVC district meet or the OSAA Class 6A state wrestling tournament.
“He’s already faced most of the guys, and although we didn’t go to Reser’s or the Classic, we saw a bunch of the tough guys there, then we went up to another 32-man tournament in Washington and saw most of Washington’s toughest kids, and Ian handles himself at high levels,” Pickett said.
“When he’s going up against high level opponents, he handles himself the same. We’re expecting him to go out there and win, along with picking up pin points along the way.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
District wrestling meets
Greater Valley Conference: Friday-Saturday at Forest Grove
3A Special District 3: Friday-Saturday at Scio
2A/1A Special District 3: Saturday at Gilchrist
District swimming meets
Greater Valley Conference: Friday-Saturday at McMinnville Aquatic Center
Mid-Willamette: Friday-Saturday at Osborn Aquatic Center, Corvallis
4A/3A/2A/1A Special District 3: Friday-Saturday at South Albany